Pride x Familiar

by Albert Ruckholdt

  Caelum had a Warlord.

  Somehow, during his time inside the Vault, he had bonded with a full Artifact, and it was one of the most powerful Artifacts in existence. This I knew from what my mother had imparted upon me.

  I saw seven wing-vanes hanging off its back, fluttering gently up and down like leaves caught in a breeze.

  I remembered Celica’s Warlord only had five wing-vanes, and something my mother told me came to mind.

  With seven wing-vanes could this be one of the legendary Rho-Khans my mother had spoken of?

  Caelum and the Warlord walked over to the rock wall. The Warlord placed a black, clawed hand on the surface of the wall.

  I felt the air vibrate and my ears began to ring. Clamping my hands over them, I watched the surface of the rock wall ripple like water for many, many seconds. Without warning a large section of the wall, roughly a dozen feet high and wide, crumbled around the point where the Warlord made contact with it. The shattered rock was blown out into the half-domed antechamber.

  Cautiously I lowered my hands from my ears, and noticed that silence had returned to the interior of the Vault’s chamber.

  Caelum turned to me, and beckoned me over with the Warlord’s right hand. I saw that it was only his legs that were attached to the machine. The rest of his body was free and upright.

  “Come on,” he called out.

  I won’t say I wasn’t afraid, but he insisted I hurry over, so I gathered my courage and quickly ran over to him.

  The Warlord’s two hands picked me up, and I was lifted into Caelum’s waiting arms. A heartbeat later he was carrying me princess style, with my arms thrown around his neck.

  I warned him, “Don’t you dare drop me.”

  His smile faltered for a heartbeat as he frowned down at me in his arms. “Did you always complain this much? I remember you being such a quiet shy thing.”

  His gaze wandered over my face and down to my chest.

  “Impressive. Most impressive.”

  I blushed hotly and unwound an arm from around his neck, fully intending to smack him. But he tested my weight in his arms and I thought I was going to fall so I hastily grabbed onto his shoulders.

  “Hey—”

  “Here we go,” he announced.

  I felt the Warlord crouch, then the air hardened around me. “Caelum—?”

  “We’re going to fly,” he declared confidently.

  “Wait—what about the security cannons?”

  “Don’t worry. We’re perfectly safe. I know what I’m doing.”

  He certainly did. First that trick where he used resonance to shatter the rock wall, and now I felt power surging through the Warlord, emanating into the air around us in the form of levitator-fields.

  How had he learnt to control a Warlord?

  Just what had happened to him inside the Vault?

  The Warlord gathered itself into a forward leaning crouch, then leapt through the shattered doorway. It sped through the antechamber, moving too quickly for the security systems to react to. Even when the cannons did fire, they missed by a wide margin.

  The Warlord flew into the tunnel a heartbeat later.

  The air thrummed as the unbelievably powerful machine soared down the middle of the tunnel.

  In the blink of an eye we flew by the remains of the Special Interventions squad and their vehicles. The tunnel walls and ceiling were ruined for hundreds of square meters. The explosion had torn a huge chunk out of the ground and wall nearest to its epicenter.

  I thought Caelum would stop and search for Melanie.

  My thoughts must have been clearly written on my face, because he replied with a hasty shake of his head.

  “She’s not here. I can’t sense any Fragment or Artifact nearby. Not even pieces of it.”

  My eyes narrowed in disbelief. “You can sense Artifacts?”

  He grimaced guiltily. “It’s a long story. No time to explain.”

  Caelum shifted my weight in his arms. “We’re almost at the exit. There’s a small army camped just beyond the tunnel’s opening. Ravana can feel them out there. I’ll drop you off with the soldiers—you’ll be safe with them.”

  I stared at him, my confusion spreading across my face. “What? Why? Caelum, what are you going to do?”

  He glanced down at me. “I’m going after my sister.”

  I couldn’t hide my unease. I didn’t agree with what he was planning and he saw it written on my face.

  “Why?” I asked him.

  He smiled regretfully at me. “Because she’s my sister…and I think she’s in trouble.”

  “What? How do you know?”

  “Ravana can feel another Warlord out there, and it’s not the Black Camellia.”

  I felt my body shiver at his words.

  Another Warlord? Did that mean there were now three Warlords inside Habitat One?

  He swallowed noticeably as he looked ahead down the length of the tunnel quickly coming to an end.

  “Caelum?”

  “Ravana knows that Warlord,” he said, his jaw muscles flexing angrily. “And I remember it quite well.”

  I had the impression we’d accelerated tremendously, but something was dampening the sudden surge in speed.

  Then we were out of the tunnel, and I felt slightly nauseous as though my body was suddenly weightless.

  The Warlord that Caelum called Ravana had come to an unbelievably quick stop. I looked about and saw us hovering a few feet of the ground, faced by a company of armored vehicles and armor-skin clad soldiers that formed a crescent around the opening of the tunnel. We were inside a military base, with a wide open square atrium and a half dozen levels bordering it. I looked up and saw rectangular openings in the distant ceiling, then realized that these openings were intended for the elevator platforms that ran up and down the perimeter of the atrium, ferrying men and machines between levels. A section of the base was apparently constructed above ground.

  I could see the facility had suffered recent damage, and I wondered if Celica was responsible for that.

  Within moments of our entry, dozens of floodlights bathed us in white light.

  I squinted sharply.

  Caelum’s voice boomed out. “Hold your fire. I repeat, hold your fire.”

  Then someone from the soldier’s ranks yelled out through a loudspeaker. “Drop to the ground and disengage from your—from your—from whatever that thing is!”

  Caelum boomed back, “I have a civilian with me. Do not fire on us. We’re not here to fight you.”

  “Drop to the ground now, or we will engage you.”

  “You stupid idiots—I’m not here to fight you. But the first man that fires on us dies.”

  I stiffened in Caelum’s arms.

  He sounded deadly serious, but so too did the soldiers.

  The soldier with the loudspeaker shouted, “This is your final warning.”

  “Yours too,” Caelum shouted back, his voice amplified tenfold by some means provided by the Warlord.

  “All Enforcers prepare to fire on my mark.”

  Without preamble, I heard a roaring wind break out around us. It gathered strength in heartbeats and formed a tornado around Caelum and I. Within moments the heavy personnel carriers and armored soldiers were tossed about like plastic toys. Those men still on their feet fell into a panic and retreated. A few of the vehicles managed to back away before the wind could knock them over, but the ground floor of the base was once again thrown into disarray.

  The soldier booming out orders was drowned out by the wind.

  I heard him cry out a few moments later.

  He and his vehicle must have been thrown aside by the raging tornado that roared around Ravana.

  The storm lasted almost a minute before quickly dissipating.

  When it was over, I saw the formation of men and machinery had been ruined. They lay scattered about the open ground floor of the base. Very few soldiers were picking themselves up off the ground. Whatever Celica had started, C
aelum had almost finished.

  Ravana moved toward a cluster of men on their hands and knees. It touched ground, and the Warlord’s hands took me from Caelum’s arms. Gently, it set me down on my feet on the hard, permacrete ground.

  Then it reached out and grabbed one of the soldiers struggling to rise.

  Caelum’s voice was loud and clear in the quiet that followed, though the sounds of soldiers moving about and calling to each other could be heard all around me. Somewhere deep in the levels above an alarm was blaring but it was silenced shortly.

  Caelum’s words carried far. “This woman is Simone Alucard Raynar, daughter of Special Interventions Commander Selena Alucard Raynar.”

  Ravana’s hand shook the soldier in its grip.

  Caelum’s voice sounded as hard as metal. “If any harm comes to her, you will have to answer to Commander Alucard…and to me.”

  He released the soldier and the man stumbled back a few steps.

  But the other men on their feet held their ground and made no effort to raise their weapons.

  Caelum faced me. “Simone, I have to go.” He hesitated before adding, “I’ll see you soon.”

  I cleared my throat quickly. “Caelum, wait—ah.”

  Ravana jumped back and I was caught up in the wind it roused.

  Hastily throwing an arm before my face, I felt the air harden again, and the nauseous weightless sensation returned. My sense of up and down vanished. I peeked under my arm in time to see Ravana leap skyward. As it did, my sense of orientation returned and I felt a tremor race along the ground, making me stagger.

  I looked up to see Ravana arc smoothly toward one of the rectangular openings in the ceiling. It sailed through the opening, and then disappeared from view.

  I had no idea where in Habitat One we had emerged.

  Regarding my surroundings with a nervously beating heart, I approached a soldier that I suspected was an officer.

  Bowing to him politely, I made my voice respectful as I requested his help.

  “Sir, my name is Simone Alucard Raynar. Please, allow me to contact my mother.”

  The man studied me quickly from head to bare feet.

  I didn’t miss the look he gave my chest, nor the way he hurriedly averted his eyes while blushing all the way to his ears.

  “Miss Alucard. Please, do something about your—your—your clothes.”

  I looked down, and saw that most of the buttons on my blouse were gone, and I was giving the soldiers a competition winning view of my prized bosom snug in its sheer and lacy white bra.

  Blast that Caelum for not telling me!

  This probably happened when he manhandled my breasts after emerging from the Vault.

  Hastily I buttoned up my white blazer across my chest.

  Then I fixed an unforgiving stare on the officer standing before me.

  “As I was saying, would you please allow me to contact my mother!”

  #

  (Celica)

  I was vaguely aware I was tossed through the air like a rag doll.

  I think I may have struck something hard – perhaps yet another tree – and then fallen limply to the ground.

  My broken ribs complained when I landed on my chest.

  The uneven nature of the ground made me think I’d landed on thick tree roots.

  I didn’t have the strength to move.

  I could barely breathe and that was only out of necessity.

  Fire burned in my chest every time my lungs expanded and contracted.

  I could feel my ribs moving about.

  The Symbiote inside me was hurrying to patch me up and set my broken bones together.

  Fallon undoubtedly knew this, which was why she kept breaking them anew by crushing my torso with Avienda’s clawed hands.

  Then she would fling me about against the trees.

  I passed out a number of times, only to be woken up as my body healed and Fallon exacted more torture upon me.

  I wanted to scream.

  I’d read somewhere that screaming out in pain helped alleviate it.

  But that would have consumed what little strength I had left.

  The torture Fallon put me through didn’t allow me even that small measure of compassion.

  I felt my body rolled over onto its back, probably by an effect-field used as a manipulator.

  My vision was bordered in shades of grey. Objects appeared indistinct yet I could discern Avienda standing before me.

  I saw a blurry visage looking down at me.

  Then I was picked up by the manipulator-field, and held before a grinning face that was malice personified.

  “You did well,” Fallon hissed through crescent lips, “for a cheap imitation.”

  I lost the strength to keep my eyes open but when the field tightened around my body, my natural response took over and my eyes widened in response to the pain. Yet despite being open, I could barely see my surroundings, including the Avienda and its pilot.

  Her voice sounded far away on the other side of what was possibly the last scream I would ever unleash.

  “I want to hear you burst!”

  My body compressed, and I felt my bones break.

  For a long while, nothing but intense pain accompanied me.

  However…I didn’t burst apart.

  My organs didn’t rupture, my joints didn’t pop, and my bones stopped breaking.

  I was still alive, and the pressure surrounding me was gone.

  I was feeling the after effects of having been squeezed tightly, and the Symbiote was trying its damnedest to keep me alive.

  But I had been released from the manipulator-field, and couldn’t understand why Fallon hadn’t killed me.

  As pain raced in unending waves through my body, and my bones and torn musculature slowly repaired itself through the Symbiote’s efforts, I managed to look up from where I lay on the ground. Grass shoots grazed my face as I moved my head a couple of inches off the soil.

  In front of me, some distance away, the Avienda lay ‘face down’ on the ground.

  Standing over it was a Warlord clad in black and white.

  The air between them shimmered as the newcomer forced the Avienda down, barrier-field against barrier-field.

  I shifted my gaze, and counted seven wing-vanes fanning out from its back.

  I raised my head a little higher, and sought a better look.

  Ever so gradually my vision was clearing up, and I was able to see the newcomer with greater clarity.

  While holding the Avienda down – crushing it into the ground – Caelum turned his head and looked at me.

  “Can you get up?” he asked.

  His voice sounded muted, but I heard it well enough.

  He’d found it – the Warlord that belonged to our bloodline’s ancestors. Because I was bonded to the Black Camellia, I was unable to claim the Ravana.

  But Caelum could, especially since he no longer had a Fragment or Artifact of his own.

  I felt a surge of pride for my brother flow through me, and gratitude toward Simone Alucard for doing her part.

  Finally, events were on the right path, just as the Seeress had envisioned.

  “Caelum….”

  “Can you get up? Can you walk? Aggh—”

  The Avienda was renewing its struggle to rise.

  He applied more pressure to it, cancelling out its attempts to break free.

  The air didn’t just shimmer anymore. It vibrated and thrummed audibly.

  The ground shook intermittently but regularly as the two Warlords struggled against each other.

  Enormous energies were being expended.

  But it was clear that Caelum had the advantage. After all, he was the Meister of a Rho-Khan, one of four of the most powerful Warlords in existence.

  Through pain addled eyes and mind, I regarded him as I gradually raised my body inch by inch off the ground.

  He’s operating it so easily, neutralizing the Avienda’s barrier-fields and levitators-fields. It can�
��t even aim its quantum reaction cannons at him.

  How was this possible?

  It must be the Regalia inside his body. It’s allowing him to use the Ravana’s power as though it’s second nature to him.

  But I saw the strain on his face as he concentrated on immobilizing the Avienda.

  “Stay down,” he yelled down at the Avienda’s Meister.

  I heard Fallon groan out a reply.

  “Let…me…go…bastard….”

  “Not going to happen,” he retorted, then glanced at me. “I can keep her down, but I can’t help you.”

  I gained my knees, and reached out a trembling hand to him. “Caelum, come with us.”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Caelum, please come with us. Bring Simone too. The two of you belong together.”

  “I’ll decide who I belong with—damn it, I told you to stay down. Keep this up and I’ll tear of your wing-vanes.”

  “Bastard…you’re…helping her.”

  “Yes. But only this once.” He faced me again. “Celica, the next time we meet we’ll be enemies.”

  I shook my head. “Caelum, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “Yes, it does. I can’t forgive Crimson Crescent. They took away our parents, and now they took away my sister.” He gave me a dark, chilling look. “One day, I will make them pay.”

  I swayed on my knees.

  I had expected this, yet I’d hoped against it.

  I closed my eyes, and hung my head.

  Every movement I made was agony, but little by little my body was healing and the pain was gradually ebbing away.

  Then I became aware of deeper thrum in the air, one that wasn’t caused by the barrier-fields reacting against each other.

  Opening my eyes, I painfully raised my head and looked up.

  Induran hovered a few hundred feet above me, its midnight black trident body a welcome sight for my beaten eyes.

  Lowering my head, I looked at Caelum.

  He hadn’t eased up on the Avienda one iota.

  I cleared my throat, and yelled across to him. “You will always be my brother. You will always be my family.”

  His eyes narrowed noticeably, but he said nothing.

  Instead, he gave me a firm nod.

  I was barely able to rise to my feet. I was barely able to remain standing. Yet, I raised a hand toward the starship.